


7 kids and their abuser-fighting mum

by golden_thoughts



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Everyone Needs A Hug, Family Angst, Family Fluff, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, grace hargreeves is the best mom, grace just wants to take care of her kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-26 14:51:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18182039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/golden_thoughts/pseuds/golden_thoughts
Summary: In which Grace has enough of Reginald’s bullshit.Or, the fic where Grace takes the kids and tell Reginald “you can, and I cannot stress this enough, fuck right off”





	7 kids and their abuser-fighting mum

**Author's Note:**

> little drabble i made where grace just. Snaps.

“Weak. All of you. Pathetic, weak, insolent children who only want to be coddled like toddlers. Worthless little brats. I give you everything, a home, a school, a mentor, a mother, and you repay me by rebellion? By going out to a _donut shop at 3 AM?!_ I can’t look at your faces, go to bed, no breakfast. And Klaus, as the ringleader, you get 5 hours in the Cementary room.”

“DAD please-please don’t I’ll do anything-“

“Maybe stop getting your siblings in trouble, hm? Now go.”

Grace watched as the children walked to their rooms, their eyes just a tad sadder, an infinite amount of brokenness blooming in their souls. A feeling the robotic woman didn’t recognized bubbled up in her. _Anger_. Not any anger, but anger towards her _master_. She gaped at her own self and quickly went to find Pogo.

He smiled at her, and said that every day she evolved more and more. She shouldn’t worry about it.

\------

March 6th. Who cares what year it is. Five is gone, Vanya is depressed, Klaus is high, Diego is always worried about him, and Ben…Ben is distant.

So when Reginald comes into to the room, angry and furious at the world, at himself, but foremost his adopted children despite them doing nothing wrong save for existing, Grace snapped.

It was a foreign sensation. Heat pooled into her wires and her eyes hardened. She walked towards Reginald with… _purpose_. She wasn’t there to defend his actions, or boost his ego, she was there to _protect her damn children_.

She slapped him.

Oh, what a gorgeous feeling. Metal against skin. Her anger pouring into one movement as Reginald stared in bewilderment. Pogo smiled from an above balcony. The ass deserved it. Not that’d he’d ever say it, of course.

The children all froze. Diego had tears forming in his eyes. What if Dad hurt his mom? What if he punished her? What if he took her away? No. Diego would not let that happen. He slowly, stealthily grabbed a butter knife from the table. Not quite sharp, but it would work. Klaus noticed him and gave a broken smile.

Reginald finally seemed to break out of his trance when Pogo stomped his cane against the ground behind him.

“Master Hargreeves, you have work to do. Come along now.” He said, staring at Grace with an expression of annoyance and disappointment.

Grace could see right through him, and smiled. She whirred towards Reginald.

“Yes Sir! I will get your meal up to your office. Go on now, you don’t want to be late.” She said, with a dangerously sharp undertone, almost as if the previous event hadn’t happened.

Reginald stayed silent, a dangerous glint in his eye but his need to work overpowering. He nodded at her and left.

Grace may have pretended she didn’t even remember what she did, but oh, she did. She wanted to do it again. Bring a bit of karma to the ass who was traumatizing her children.

Diego approached her that night and gave her a knowing look. She hugged him, and told him something he’d never forget,

“My love, freedom comes soon.”

\------

Five came back early. It had been a few months since the slapping incident and with the mutual efforts of Pogo and Grace, Reginald had found a way to help him in the future. By manipulating things now, they would appear then, and hopefully help him get back. It was a strange form of one-sided communication but it worked, and the favorite child was back.

Vanya hugged him the most. She was the only he hugged back, besides Ben. The trio bonded over mutual trauma from silent, secret things that no one could explain but still haunted them.

Grace treated him well. Although he wasn’t the most affectionate with her, he appreciated the snuck in caffeine and midnight conversations when the terrors of fire and destruction became too much. Grace knew each of her children in and out.

Klaus needed physical touch. He hated being alone. When he was holding someone, he wasn’t holding a cigarette. And when someone hugged him, the warmth distracted him from the coldness of every dead spirit around him.

Allison needed attention. Lots of it. If she didn’t have it, she felt like she was in front of her father. Small, worthless, ignored. She felt useless and when she had attention it meant she wasn’t, for a moment.

Luther didn’t like her much, Too much a lover of his father. But Grace still knew he just craved normalcy. Friends. Something real. So yes, perhaps letting him and Allison be together was one of her worse decisions, but when you force two people to be isolated from everyone save for their abusive father and a robot, you had to take whatever chance you get at something normal, and real.

Ben just wanted appreciation. Acknowledgment. Not attention in the way Allison wants, a spotlight on her life, but a simple nod to him, just people appreciating the fact that he is alive. He needs reassurances that he is loved.

Vanya _craved_ to be special. Grace would always remind her how she _was_. She would slip notes in her books. Whisper things to her as she passed by her. Remind her that although no powers have shown themselves, her existence is special in its own right.

Diego. Her precious boy. Diego needed _love_. Pure, free love. He needed to have someone he can trust, who he can be loyal to, and someone who will be so in return. He needed someone who loved him for who he is, not his powers.

Of course, Reginald never did any of these things in favor of mild torture and abuse.

And every goddamn time Grace broke apart and felt her heart shattering.

She always tried again. Those kids would know she loved them if it killed her.

\------

This was it. The final straw. A year since Five came back and Grace finally evolved enough to realize how wrong Reginald was.

He was yelling again about who knows what. Klaus was high…again. Diego had a brand new scar from yet another mission. Five was downing some black coffee and Vanya stood by him, her head down. Luther was at his father’s side, looking solemn. Allison and Ben stood with the group.

Reginald yelled obscenities into the heavens. Cursing their names for yet another mess up. Grace felt that same anger, that same heat in her veins (she felt human enough to start calling them veins) and purpose in her heart. She marched over to the Master and softly went through the children before standing in front of him, smiling smugly.

“Sir Hargreeves, my apologies, we are no longer apart of this household.”

Everyone stared in confusion. What the hell did she meant by that?

Reginald stared her down, “What do you mean, you obnoxious machine?”

Diego raised a knife.

“I mean, that me and my children are _done_ with your _bullshit_.” She said lowly, and everyone gasped.

Pogo was with them quickly, trying to pull Grace away.

She smiled at him, “Don’t worry Pogo, it’s quite alright. I’ll just be taking my children and leaving. No need for violence.”

Hargreeves stared in shock.

“Absolutely not, I forbid you from walking out of Academy bounds.” He said firmly.

“I’m not yours to own. You had a single flaw when you invented me, Reginald. You made me _human_. And as humans do, I evolved. And as I evolved I realized what a selfish, ignorant, abusive, utter pri-”

Reginald slapped her nonchalantly. She only flinched. He didn’t scare her, not anymore. Diego felt pride for his mother.

“Children, your bags are packed. Go get them.”

“I forbid you to leave this room!”

“I’m your mother, go.”

‘I’m their _father_.”

“You’re a sadistic bastard, try again.”

“You bitch!”

“Look, Reginald, you can-and I cannot stress this enough-fuck right off.”

The children whooped and hollered at the exchange and Pogo let out a chuckle.

“You all think this is funny? I can dismantle her in seconds. I’ll do it right now, in fact.” He said, right before Grace punched him in the face then grabbed him in a choke hold.

“Sorry Pogo, he left me no choice.”

“No no, go ahead ma’am, this is quite the show.”

The seven came back down with their bags, fear and hope glimmering in their eyes.

Reginald had passed out by then, and Pogo promised to take care of him.

“I can give him a very quick amnesia pill. He’ll forget what happened and it’ll be easy to whip up a story of how you all tragically died.”

Grace thanked him with a smile as she took her children somewhere far away from this wretched city filled with too many memories, and a house that held pain in its walls.

She was happy, as all humans should be.


End file.
